"Salvation is of the LORD." -Jonah 2:9

"But now, O LORD, Thou art our Father; we are the clay, and Thou our Potter; and we all are the work of Thy hand."   -Isaiah 64:8 [KJV] Until 'free-will,' self-righteousness, creature exertions, and h uman merit are dried up and withered away, till they all give up the ghost, we can never come into that spot where we are the clay, and God is the Potter. Can the clay make itself into a vessel? Can it mould itself into shape and form? Can it start from its bed, and work itself up into a vessel for use or ornament?  No more can we make ourselves fit for glory, or mould ourselves into vessels of honour. If the Lord do but give us the feeling in our souls, our sweetest privilege, our dearest enjoyment, is to be the clay. 'Free-will,' self-righteousness, human wisdom, and creature strength— we give them all to the pharisees; let them make the most of them.   But when the Lord indulges our souls with some measure of access to Himself, and brings us in all ...

"Thus saith thy LORD, the LORD, and thy GOD who pleadeth the cause of His people." -see Isaiah 51:22 [KJV] Thou poor soul, who art almost at thy wits’ end, drunk with trouble, and intoxicated with affliction, over thee do men insult, and Satan triumph? Are they saying to thee, “Bow down, thou poor, insignificant wretch! that we may go over thee.” You a Christian! you are not what you profess. In the lowliness of thy mind, and in the meekness of thy heart, dost thou take all this?  And, as it were, hast thou laid thy body on the ground, and suffered thyself to be walked over? All this cannot satisfy the fury of thine enemies. Wherein art thou to take comfort under all this? Verily, from, thus saith thy Lord. Thy Lord: mind that. However men treat thee, they cannot take thy Lord, nor His love from thee: nor should they at any time disturb thy peace, or destroy thy comfort in him. For the Lord is thy God.  This is again repeated. Why ? that thou shouldest take spe...

“I am black, but comely."   -Song of Solomon 1:5 [KJV] See, my soul, whether thine experience corresponds to that of the church. Hast thou learnt from God the Spirit what thou art in thyself? Art thou truly sensible of the many sins and corruptions which lurk under fair appearances; and that, from carrying about with thee a body of sin and death, as the apostle said he did, in thee, that is, in thy flesh, dwelleth no good thing? Dost thou appear not only black in thine own view, but art thou despised for Christ's sake, and counted the off scouring of all things in the view of the world? Pause, my soul. Now look at the bright side. Art thou comely in Christ's righteousness, which He hath put upon thee? Comely in the sweet sanctifying grace of the Holy Ghost dwelling in thee? Comely in the eyes of God the Father, from being accepted in Jesus the Beloved? Comely in church communion and fellowship, walking in the fear of God, and under the comforts of the Holy G...

"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."   -John 8:32 [KJV] The truths of the gospel, though to an enlightened eye they shine as with a ray of light all through the word, yet are they, for the most part, laid up as in veins: "Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where they fine it." "As for the earth, out of it cometh bread, and under it is turned up as it were fire. The stones of it are the place of sapphires, and it hath dust of gold" (Job 28:5, 6).   But where is "the place of sapphires?" and where this "dust of gold?" "In the path which no fowl," no unclean professor, "knoweth, and which the vulture's eye," keen though it be after this world's carrion, "hath not seen."   But to a spiritual mind sweet and self-rewarding is the task, if task it can be called, of searching the word as for hid treasure. No sweeter, no better employment can...